Dan, Matt and Jim hit Cabrillo

Yesterday Matt and I met up at Belmont hoping to get a little wind. We had talked to a few folks and it didn't look promising. We ended up doing a few down winders but mostly we just hung out.

So today Matt and I were determined to have a better day than we had yesterday. I went on-line this morning and the prediction was that it was going to blow at Cabrillo.

I knew that Matt was tied up until mid-day so I called my son Dan to see what he was up to. He said he could join us after 2, so I proceeded to do some chores around the house since Ruth is out of town for about three weeks.

I accessed ikitesurf's wind report and noticed it was coming up, then I drove down to Belmont to see what was happening here and nothing, so I called Matt and Dan and said let's head to Cabrillo.


The way that I got there was I drove over the Vincent Thomas Bridge, went straight, rather than get on the 110 and turned left on South Gaffey. At some point I turned left to Pacific and then a right on Pacific. I continued until I saw a sign for Cabrillo Beach parking.

I got there first so waited for them on a street that overlooks the beach where I could see the 5 or 6 windsurfers launch/land their rigs. For them it looked pretty easy going in and out.

Once we got inside and found parking we brought our gear up to a grass rigging area which is located next to the lifeguard building. Very convenient. There was also a lifeguard boat anchored just off the beach. There was a lot of peace of mind here.

While rigging we saw a guy single handed launch his kite, body drag out with his board and sail away. Now that looked pretty easy......FOR HIM!!!!!

Matt was rigged first, then me, then Dan. So we put our kites in that order on the sand. When everyone was rigged Dan launched Matt's Naish. All of a sudden the kite was up and down, and up and down. Dan grabbed it and Matt prepared for another launch attempt. Same thing up and down and up and down. Dan grabbed the kite and brought it up on the sand so Matt could check it out.

Then they launched me. By the way since it was white capping a few city blocks out I decided to rig my 12 and not my 16. The initial launch was slow and then it caught the wind and went right to 12 o'clock and then it fell out of the sky, as it was falling it caught the wind and went straight up. Very scary. Matt handed me my board, I body dragged out and was able to launch. Very gusty launch.

Then Dan launched. I couldn't see much because I was outside, so I guess it was OK.

Once "outside" everything was fantastic. The wind was very strong and consistent. Dan went out on his 13 but later he said he could have been out on his 10. For me my 12 was perfect.

We kited from about 4 until about 7. Dan and I were the only kiter's at the end, and Matt figured his kite was too big for the conditions and was going to take pictures. Dead battery, no shots sorry.

I don't know where the wind sensor is but we felt the 20 mph was pretty accurate for the wind that was about two to three city blocks out.

Fortunately Matt was still there on the beach to give us a hand catching our kites when we came in. It looked like Dan came right in and Matt caught his kite. Then I came in and back to the up and down wind and then it dropped in the surf, turned backwards. Then Matt ran over and caught it before it powered up again. That would have been a terrible end to a pretty good day.

In closing, Cabrillo is definitely an expert site and don't go alone. Having a couple of buddy's really helped us. By the way there are hot showers, but no hose on the rigging grass.